Privilege (1967)

☆ ☆ ☆

Privilege (1967) – P. Watkins

Peter Watkins melds his faux documentary style (featured in The War Game, 1965, which shows Britain after a nuclear attack) with a more traditional narrative approach in this “near future” look at manipulation of the masses. Presciently, it is a pop star who is used, first, to encourage youth to release their violent impulses through music appreciation rather than protest, and secondly, to get them to embrace nationalism and religion – that is, a group of business leaders see the pop star as a way to set up a fascist government (coalition of tory and labor parties, as a matter of fact).  Only artist Jean Shrimpton sees through everything and convinces the wan Paul Jones (from Manfred Mann) to rebel against his minders.  A lot of good provocative ideas here but things drag a bit. I wondered too whether such centralized manipulation is even possible in this new age of social media and a thousand independent voices (but, yeah, they could just shut down the internet and be done with it, I guess).